The test of understanding of vectors (TUV) is a multiple-choice test that was recently developed to assess student understanding of vector concepts required in introductory physics courses at the university level. In this study, the TUV was administered to 889 first-year students at the University of Zagreb. The Rasch model was used to evaluate…

In the last decade, a powerful tool has been given to physics teachers to visualize thermodynamic phenomena. Thermal imaging cameras are fascinating devices opening the world of (even small) temperature changes and being able to uncover hidden manifestations of many processes around us. This paper describes a few qualitative thermal imaging…

Undergraduate physics programs are increasingly facing pressure from university and college administration, industry, and funding agencies to improve training of our undergraduates. Increasingly, tertiary institutions have redefined their graduate profiles and mission statements to encompass more than just content knowledge, including skills that…

Background/Context: Students, classrooms, teachers, and schools form hierarchical units of any schooling system that compete for, say, educational resources and sometimes blame one another for the failure to meet a certain societal goal. Little educational research exists that separates competing effects on schooling outcomes across these…

Using multimodal conversation analysis, this article examines how students strive to resolve non-understandings through requests for clarification during teacher-fronted physics lectures taught in English in Finland. The findings provide new insights on the sequential environments in which students launch the requests (i.e. between or during…

Advocating for the laboratory method was a distinguishing feature of textbooks as "physics" displaced "natural philosophy" in American schools during the second half of the nineteenth century as the dominant tradition of teaching physical science. This dissertation examines digital editions of textbooks in common use during the…

Participation in post-compulsory physics is a matter of longstanding concern from economic and equity perspectives. The current study draws upon Bourdieu's theory of social practice, particularly notions of the 'cultural arbitrary', to explore what insights into post-compulsory physics choice might be provided by students who chose other sciences.…

Identifying struggling students in real-time provides a virtual learning environment with an opportunity to intervene meaningfully with supports aimed at improving student learning and engagement. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of quit prediction modeling in students playing a learning game called Physics Playground. From the…

We describe and illustrate factors that specify what it means for a tutor to provide different "levels of support", based on our analyses of models of the levels of support provided during human tutoring and teacher-led small group work. We then show how we used these factors to implement contingent scaffolding in a tutorial dialogue…

In order to analyse whether or not the characteristic of scientific inquiry activities of textbooks in China satisfy the requirements of China's new curriculum reforms, content analysis method was adopted to analyze scientific inquiry activities in junior middle school physical textbooks (grade 8) of five editions authorized by the Chinese…

Educational research points to similar learning experiences across different countries, in particular that physical science tends to be an unpopular discipline among students from secondary school. The use of students' voice to adapt curriculum and implement innovative teaching practice has been gaining relevance towards the effort of potentiating…

The "Playground Physics" program combines informal, play-based, embodied learning experiences to support middle school students' engagement with and motivation to learn about complex and abstract physics concepts. This experimental design study examines the impact of "Playground Physics" on students' science motivation,…

In this study, we evaluate the impact of rehearsing teaching skills in a mixed-reality classroom simulator on graduate teaching assistants' (GTAs) instructional practices as well as undergraduate student learning outcomes. The simulator training is intended to provide GTAs opportunities to deliberately practice essential pedagogical skills that…

Polar research plays a vital role in developing our understanding of Earth's climate system. It is intrinsically interdisciplinary, lending itself to integration into existing undergraduate courses. Here we explore introducing undergraduates to polar research through computational guided inquiry (CGI) modules taught in a variety of courses and…

There is a worldwide concern about science and engineering undergraduate students, particularly those who are English language learners, struggling with their entry-level content courses. From a teacher cognition perspective and drawing on semi-structured interviews with chemistry, mathematics and physics teachers at a university in the Middle…